and for it!"

Smoke drew the contract from his pocket and pointed to the PAY ON
DELIVERY. "No mention is made of the number of eggs to be delivered. You
agreed to pay ten dollars for every egg we delivered to you. Well, we've
got the eggs, and a signed contract is a signed contract. Honestly,
though, Wild Water, we didn't know about those other eggs until
afterward. Then we had to buy them in order to make our corner good."

For five long minutes, in choking silence, Wild Water fought a battle
with himself, then reluctantly gave in.

"I'm in bad," he said brokenly. "The landscape's fair sproutin' eggs.
An' the quicker I get out the better. There might come a landslide of
'em. I'll be there at two o'clock. But forty thousand dollars!"

"It's only thirty-nine thousand six hundred an' twenty," Smoke
corrected. "It'll weigh two hundred pounds," Wild Water raved on. "I'll
have to freight it up with a dog-team."

"We'll lend you our teams to carry the eggs away," Smoke volunteered.

"But where'll I cache 'em? Never mind. I'll be there. But as long as I
live I'll never eat another egg. I'm full sick of 'em."

At half-past one, doubling the dog-teams for the steep pitch of the
hill, Shorty arrived with Gautereaux's eggs. "We dang near double our
winnings," Shorty told Smoke, as they piled the soap-boxes inside the
cabin. "I holds 'm down to eight dollars, an' after he cussed loco in
French he falls for it. Now that's two dollars clear profit to us for
each egg, an' they're three thousan' of 'em. I paid 'm in full. Here's
the receipt."

While Smoke got out the gold-scales and prepared for business, Shorty
devoted himself to calculation.

"There's the figgers," he announced triumphantly. "We win twelve
thousan' nine hundred an' seventy dollars. An' we don't do Wild Water
no harm. He wins Miss Arral. Besides, he gets all them eggs. It's sure a
bargain-counter all around. Nobody loses."

"Even Gautereaux's twenty-four thousand to the good," Smoke laughed,
"minus, of course, what the eggs and the freighting cost him. And
if Wild Water plays the corner, he may make a profit out of the eggs
himself."

Promptly at two o'clock, Shorty, peeping, saw Wild Water coming up the
hill. When he entered he was brisk and businesslike. He took off his big
bearskin coat, hung it on a nail, and sat down at the table.

"Bring on them eggs, you pirates," he commenced. "An' after this day, if
you know what's good for you, never mention eg